A Slew of Reader-Suggested Stories

With one side in near hysteria, and the other being disingenuous if not misleading, it's no wonder there is huge confusion on the subject of healthcare reform. However, the whole debate is less complex than it appears. One side is intent upon providing affordable healthcare insurance for 47 million Americans through higher taxes and deficit spending- the other side, who would shoulder a disproportionate share of the expense for universal healthcare, and reap fewer of the benefits, are opposed to the plan. Somehow, the concept of actually reducing the cost of healthcare has gotten lost.

It appears that the Tort Lawyers have successfully defended their turf, the Insurance Lobby has positioned themselves nicely to weather the controversy, and cynics might conclude that big Pharma has cut a deal that changed the focus of the debate from Healthcare Reform to Healthcare Insurance Reform- assuring that the costs of pharmaceutical drugs will continue to be higher in the United States than almost anywhere in the world. The Republicans are desperate to regain their footing, and will do just about anything to derail the Obama train, regardless of the consequences. The Democrats are similarly motivated to manufacture a mandate for a broad range of liberal initiatives from votes cast against the hugely unpopular previous administration, and to do so before the fading popularity of the new administration tank altogether.

There are a whole range of reasonable, pragmatic changes that could be implemented to improve the quality and affordability of healthcare in the United States, but thus far they have gotten overlooked, slandered, and lost in the crossfire of unsubstantiated claims, demonization, and infighting.

1. Encourage retail walk-in Healthcare Clinics, where at modest cost, trained Healthcare Professionals (ex. RNs) could treat common ailments, recommend over the counter remedies (and limited prescription drugs) and triage more serious ailments.

2. Allow Credit Unions and/or other (Federally Insured) financial institutions to offer Healthcare Savings accounts as a service- rather than an employer-based model. These same institutions could offer Group insurance policies at a lower cost than individual policies. These might take the form of catastrophic coverage policies to coordinate with the Healthcare Savings Account reimbursements.

3. Consider funding the education of more healthcare professionals- presumably driving down the cost of routine care- and perhaps offer a work-study program or internship to offset/repay that tuition.

4. Tort reform. Plaintiffs are certainly due the compensatory damages they are awarded, but where is it written that punitive damages must be awarded to the plaintiffs and their lawyers? Punitive damages are a necessary deterrent, but if they were instead awarded to Charitable Organizations, the incentive to file spurious lawsuits would be diminished.

5. The Pharmaceutical companies need to generate profits to stay in business and continue to provide and develop medicines- but why are they allowed to charge more for those medicines in the United States than elsewhere in the world? A more universal pricing policy would reduce costs for U.S. Citizens as well as the U.S. Government.

6. Rather than legislating Healthcare, the Government could draft, publish and support “model” group healthcare insurance plans, which then could become a standard against which all privately offered policies could be measured. It would then become much easier to comparison shop the policies as all plans that are in compliance with the model would offer (at least) the same basic coverage. It might even be easier to administer the plans, as specific coverage would be common to all compliant plans. No Insurance Company, or any other entity, would be obliged or compelled to offer such plans- but those that choose to could offer private insurance plans nationally, expanding each company’s potential customer base and encouraging competition. Such plans could be negotiated, sponsored, endorsed by, or offered through, the S.B.A., Banks, Credit Unions or other organizations. This would result in a Co-Op that could offer small companies and individuals access to the same healthcare programs (and lower rates) that larger companies enjoy today.

7. Excessive and possibly unnecessary testing procedures are often mentioned as one of the components of spiraling healthcare costs. Healthcare professionals explain that performing these tests is necessary to protect themselves from possible litigation. It may also be that many of these same Healthcare Professionals have financial interests in the facilities that perform these tests, providing an incentive to proscribe testing procedures that may not be necessary in terms of diagnosis. Greater scrutiny, disclosure, and transparency is required.

If the “public option” were eliminated, and the penalties associated with “pay-to-play” removed from the proposals under consideration, we could have a reasonable health care reform bill passed by October- unless the far right and far left are successful in an odd conspiracy to kill Healthcare reform altogether.